The Nov. 8 election is drawing near. In fact with early voting starting next Wednesday, the election is practically underway. I heard a report just this week that the temperature of the election has reached such a fever that there might be enough votes cast during early voting to decide the presidential election in some states.

Last week, two respected polls projected that the votes of as many as 40 percent of Tennesseans will not count in the coming presidential election.

Some readers may assume that recent bombshells about the Republican presidential nominee must have overshadowed such shocking news. Others will see this as proof that our elections are indeed “rigged.”

If ever a police department needed veteran, seasoned and experienced leadership, that time is now.

That is why I find it discouraging there were voices at the recent Harriman City Council meeting who inferred it would have been best to go back to a “good old boy” system of choosing the person to lead a vital service for our city.

It is even more discouraging these remarks were said before the new chief has even started in his position.

What we suspected when we first learned of the deplorable showing of our Roane County high school students on their ACT exams (which as you will remember showed them to be tied for next to last place on the East Tennessee schools reported on in the News Sentinel, and well below the state average, and even farther below the national average,) was that this is a systemic problem directly traceable to the folks in charge of education in the county, viz. the Board of Education and their minions.